If you can never get enough of the Roman Empire, Songs of Steel: Hispania might be worth a look. The game is available to buy on Steam for just 20 euros.
What kind of game is this? Songs of Steel: Hispania is a turn-based strategy game. In it you experience the conflict between the expanding Roman Republic and the Celtiberian people of Numantia, who lived in what is now Spain.
You can experience the conflict from both Rome’s and Numantia’s perspectives. On the Roman side, you play the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (the younger). He later gained notoriety as the destroyer of Carthage, the well-known arch-enemy of Rome. People like Rhetogenes and Leuco wait on Numantia’s side.
Songs of Steel: Hispania is available on Steam for just 19.99 euros. You can also find a free demo there if you just want to get a taste of it. In the official launch trailer, the developers briefly introduce their game and the conflict it deals with.
You can see this trailer here:
Songs of Steel: Hispania on Steam lets you relive a forgotten conflict from Roman times
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What makes Songs of Steel: Hispania recommended? The Roman campaigns on the Iberian Peninsula are rarely discussed in video games. For this reason alone, Songs of Steel: Hispania has the advantage of using a fresh setting.
The player reviews on Steam are 92% positive, but there are currently only 38 of them. For this reason, we would call this an insider tip.
Strategic battles with meaningful decisions
How does Songs of Steel: Hispania play? MeinMMO has already played the demo of the strategy game. It feels like a mix between XCOM and the combat in Civilization. On the battlefield, you control troop units and heroes on a hexagonal grid. Who wins is often determined by terrain, flanking maneuvers and the morale of the troops.
With every battle you win, your surviving troops gain experience. In the camp you can equip them with new weapons and thus also improve their combat effectiveness. So you should be careful not to waste the lives of your soldiers pointlessly.
Between battles, you make decisions that will impact your campaign. How you behave in certain situations influences, for example, the morale of your soldiers or how other characters see you. You also have to manage your supplies.
The fights are also pretty tricky, so even veterans should have fun with them. However, some reviews criticize that they are sometimes too restrictive. The game often tells you how many units you can lose in a battle or how quickly you have to win. The size of your army is also manageable at the moment.
At its core is a good strategy game with some good mechanics – both the positive and most negative reviews agree on this. For this reason, we would recommend trying out the demo first. If you buy the game and don’t like it, you can still use the return option on Steam.
The long and complicated history of the Roman Empire served as inspiration for the developers of Civilization 7 for their biggest new feature. You can read more here: Civilization 7 explains why they are changing a basic principle of the series after 33 years, even though it scares everyone